


Prelonging the Inevitable

by ZahlzStar



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 14:10:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8893654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZahlzStar/pseuds/ZahlzStar
Summary: Laura Hollis is expecting to wake up in her soulmate's body on her 21st birthday, what she isn't expecting is to wake up in the body of her girlfriend's broody roommate. Based on this prompt:“okay so you know the soulmate au where on your 21st birthday you wake up in your soulmate’s body? imagine if you were dating someone for a long time and on your birthday you wake up and you’re in their apartment so you’re like “yes it’s them!!!” and then you look in a mirror and you’re in the body of their roommate”





	

**Author's Note:**

> I felt like I needed something new, so I went through some story prompts and this one took hold before I could do anything about it. I hope you like it, I know I had a lot of fun with it.

“Your birthday’s next week, are you excited?” Danny asks and Laura puts on a smile before adding one more lie to the growing heap.

“Yeah, totally,”

“I’m glad to hear it. I’m gonna go take a shower, but we can talk more about your party when I’m done,” Danny smiles and heads for the bathroom. As Laura watches her walk away she feels the pit in her stomach recede slightly.

She supposes that in the grand scheme of things, the little white lies she’d been telling Danny for the last few weeks weren’t so bad. Once her birthday passed, she’d know for sure that Danny is her soulmate and she’d be able to put all the silly doubts she’d been feeling behind her. The original lie Laura had told was really more of a safety measure anyway, she simply told anyone she entered a relationship with that her birthday was a week later than it really was. That way if she was in a relationship with someone when she turned 21, she’d be able to know for sure if they were really her soulmate without having to worry about the expectation and pressure that comes with finding out.

She’d been dating Danny for two years now, having met shortly after Laura’s 19th birthday, and they’d been living together for about a year now. If anyone was going to be her soulmate, on all accounts, it should be Danny. She had all the makings of a soulmate, and she’d been nothing but good to Laura for the entire time they’d known each other. So the off feeling that Laura had been experiencing for the last few weeks had had Laura rightfully confused.

“So when do you plan on telling Big Red that you’ve been lying to her?” Carmilla asks, leaning against her the wall and thoroughly startling Laura.

Laura spins around to face the broody girl, only now realising that she and Danny hadn’t actually been alone. It wasn’t that she suspected Carmilla of eavesdropping, she imagines that Carmilla had been on her way out of the room as they’d finished talking. It still surprised her that Carmilla could be considerate at times, in this case leaving them be to finish their conversation instead of interrupting.

When Laura had first been introduced to Danny’s roommate, they hadn’t exactly hit it off, instead they took somewhat of a dislike to one another. At the very least, Laura took a dislike to Carmilla. During their interactions, Laura had found Carmilla to be rude and immature, and she was hardly wrong in her assumptions.

Shortly after Laura had moved in, and Carmilla had turned 21, the relationship between them changed. Carmilla became more tolerable, and Laura found that she actually didn’t mind conversing with her on occasion. Laura wouldn’t necessarily consider them friends, but they no longer struggled to tolerate one another and became something closer to reluctant roommates.

“What? I’m not, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Laura splutters to defend herself but Carmilla just gives her a look before responding.

“Sure, and your middle name isn’t Eileen. If that’s the extent of your ability to lie, I’m amazed that she’s been buying it for so long,”

“Fine, yes, I’ve been lying to her. How do you even know that?” Laura questions, but keeps her voice low despite being able to hear the shower running.

 

“I pay attention,” Carmilla tries to brush the question off but Laura fixes her with an adamant look and she rolls her eyes.

“Remember that time you left your wallet here and you needed me to return it for you because Danny was already at work?” Carmilla asks and Laura’s eyes widen in recognition.

“Your ID fell out when I picked it up, and like I said, I pay attention. Now that I think about it, Danny being at work probably wasn’t the only reason you didn’t want her giving it back to you. Which leads me back to the topic at hand. Were you going to tell her next week, or after your actual birthday tomorrow?”

 

“Neither, I just have to wait it out. Once I know for sure that she’s my soulmate, it really won’t even matter,” Laura sighs and Carmilla quirks an eyebrow.

“If she’s your soulmate,”

“What would make you think otherwise?” Laura asks in confusion and Carmilla shakes her head.

“Nothing that you need to concern yourself with, Sweetheart,”

 

Laura is concerned for a moment that maybe she hadn’t been hiding her doubts about her relationship as well she thought she had so she decides to switch gears.

“You’re 22, right? Have you found your soulmate yet?”

 

Carmilla scoffs, something that confuses Laura even more, before she looks up at the girl with a strange expression that almost looks wistful.

“Something like that,”

 

“So where are they?” Laura asks, curious about her roommate’s odd behaviour.

“We’re not quite on the same page just yet,” Carmilla replies and before Laura has a chance to question her further, they hear the shower turning off.

 

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Laura,” Carmilla says quietly before pushing away from the wall and leaving the apartment, leaving Laura as confused as ever as Danny exits the bathroom.

 

~

Laura had managed to successfully convince Danny that her birthday was still a week away, thankfully avoiding another birthday party, or to be more specific the gigantic headache she had after Carmilla’s party. So when she wakes up the next morning in a bed other than Danny’s, she’s both relieved that she’d had the forethought to plan ahead, and thoroughly surprised.

Instead she wakes up half naked, which, after looking down at her soulmate’s body is not an entirely unpleasant sight, with a fluffy black cat sleeping on her chest. She recognises Carmilla’s cat, Mircalla, immediately despite never really spending much time with the cat. The entire time she’d been living in the house, Mircalla had never quite liked her. She seemed to like Danny even less though, so Laura did take a small amount of satisfaction in that.

After a moment, Laura finds a phone next to her, and upon bringing turning the phone on, she sees the same black cat saved as the lock screen photo. Laura begins putting the pieces together and after a moment she unlocks the phone with her fingerprint. After doing so, Laura sees a candid shot of herself that she didn’t actually know existed saved as the home screen.  

Realisation washes over Laura when she finally figures it out and she carefully moves the now awake cat to the side as she gets out of bed and begins to scan the messy room in search of something to wear. Eventually, Laura locates and throws on an oversized t-shirt before running out down the, thankfully empty, hallway to the equally empty bathroom and looking in the mirror. Carmilla’s unfairly attractive face stares back at her, and after a moment she runs to Danny’s room, determined to get some answers.

//

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Carmilla is just as unhappy to wake up in Danny’s bed the second time as she was the first. Though this time, she actually shrieks a little bit when she sees that Danny is asleep beside her. The shriek results in Danny waking up and the panic sets in when Danny rolls over to face her.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Danny asks in concern, unaware of the current situation that is unfolding.

“I uh, I had a nightmare,” Carmilla spits out, painfully aware that she’s currently in the body of her soulmate, and Danny’s girlfriend. Danny props herself up on her elbow when Carmilla realises in horror that Danny is going to want to talk about it.

“What was it about?”

“It was horrible, The 100 got picked up for three more seasons because Bellarke became Canon, and no one cared about Lexa anymore,” Carmilla manages to babble very much in a Laura-esque way and she only has a brief moment to hate herself for just how well she knows Laura before the girl in question bursts into the room wearing Carmilla’s body as well as her favourite shirt, with Mircalla following closely behind.

 

“Did you forget how to knock, Wednesday?” Danny asks as Laura zeroes in on Carmilla.

 

“I need to talk to you. Right now, immediately,” Laura states and Carmilla is out of bed before she even finishes her sentence. Danny shakes her head in confusion at their strange behaviour but rolls over to go back to sleep.

Laura all but drags Carmilla by the hand as she heads for the balcony but all Carmilla can think about is how nice it is to finally have Laura’s hand in hers. Laura finally comes to a stop and stares at Carmilla pointedly for a moment before holding her hands out and looking down at herself, “Care to explain this?”  

“We’re soulmates,” Carmilla replies but the glare she receives is actually genuinely a little terrifying and she decides that now is the time to tell her side of the story.

~

_Unbeknownst to Laura, Carmilla had, in fact, found her soulmate, a year after Laura and Danny had begun dating and very shortly after Laura had moved in with Danny._

 

_“You really aren’t too good at holding your liquor, huh, Cupcake?” Carmilla chuckles as a drunk Laura looks offended._

_“Rude, I’m actually very good at handling my drunk. I’m not even that alcohol right now,” \_

_“Oh, of course. My mistake,”_

_“You’re forgiven, I am going to sit down for a bit and I’ll be good to go,” Laura mumbles and promptly passes out on the couch._

 

_“Looks like it’s bedtime for you,” Danny says and scoops Laura up into her arms before carrying her into their room. Carmilla finishes her drink by the time Danny walks back out so she turns to address the small gathering of friends that were there to help her celebrate her 21st birthday._

_“Alrighty, folks. I’m ready to get this ‘finding my soulmate’ business out of the way, you’re free to hang around until the Ginger Giant decides to kick you out.”_

 

_With that, Carmilla heads to her room and flops down on her bed passing out soon after. As it would happen, she doesn’t stay asleep for long and when she does wake up once again, she can hear loud music and laughter. Carmilla looks around and recognises Danny’s bedroom._

_“No fucking way,”_

 

_After a few moments of sheer panic at the thought of Danny being her soulmate, Carmilla realises that the body she’s currently residing in is lacking about a foot in height and is most definitely not that of a ginger._

_“Okay, not Danny, but if I’m not in Danny’s body, then that means,” Carmilla reasons in a voice too high to be her own, and she reaches down to inspect strands of long hair far too many shades lighter than her own._

_“Laura,”_

 

~

 

“Why don’t I remember waking up in your body that night?” Laura asks, after Carmilla finishes her explanation.

“You were hammered that night, even if you only woke up briefly, you probably just put it down to a mixture of the alcohol and your over active imagination. Either that, or you just slept through it entirely,” Carmilla shrugs and Laura briefly recalls being heavily intoxicated that night.

 

“So now that we’re on the same page about being soulmates,” Carmilla starts but Laura gasp in realisation and interrupts her.

“That’s what you meant yesterday about your soulmate. You’ve known for a year now and haven’t said anything, you jerk,” Laura exclaims and Carmilla shakes her head.

“I wanted you to figure it out on your own, I’ll admit, I hoped you’d figure it out sooner but the sentiment remains the same,”

 

A moment later, everything goes black for a moment and when Carmilla opens her eyes she’s back in her own body and looking at an equally confused Laura.

 

“Right, now that we aren’t inside each other, what do we do next?” Laura says and Carmilla smirks at her.

“I can think of other ways to be inside each other,” Carmilla waggles her eyebrows.

“Carm! This is serious,” Laura exclaims and Carmilla laughs before holding her hands up.

“Fine, but to be fair, I have known you were my soulmate for a year now. I think I’m allowed to make a joke or two,”

 

“I guess the next step is talking to Danny,” Laura sighs and immediately Carmilla sobers.

“Yeah, I guess we probably should,”

 

~

“Hey, guys. What’s going on?” Danny asks when she walks out of her room and sees Carmilla and Laura sitting at the table.

“Danny, hey. I think you should probably take a seat,” Laura offers and Danny does as suggested.

“You guys look like you’re about to give me an intervention,” Danny jokes but she can see the serious look on both of their faces.

 

“I, uh, I haven’t been completely honest with you,” Laura starts and Danny frowns but waits for her to continue.

“It isn’t actually my birthday next week, it’s my birthday today,”

 

“But that means,” Danny trails off and Laura nods her head.

“I found my soulmate,”

“And it wasn’t me,” Danny fills in with a defeated tone and Laura looks apologetic.

 

“So why is Carmilla here? I can’t imagine it’s for moral support,” Danny asks after a moment and Laura and Carmilla look at each other.

“Because, when I woke up this morning, it was in Carmilla’s body,” Laura answers and Danny’s eyes widen in surprise.

“Carmilla’s your soulmate?”

 

“I’ve woken up in your bed, in Laura’s body, twice now. So, yeah, I’d say so,” Carmilla comments, though the tone isn’t malicious.

“So this morning, it wasn’t actually a nightmare about The 100. It was Carmilla waking up beside me?” Danny asks and Laura shoots Carmilla a questioning glance.

“Oh, it was a nightmare alright,” Carmilla remarks and Laura elbows her in the side.

“You said that this has happened twice now, why are you only just now telling me?” Danny asks, a mix of angry and curious as she looks at her roommate.

“A few reasons actually, the most pressing being that Laura doesn’t remember the first time. It was because she didn’t remember that I decided to wait it out and let her find out on her own. To be completely honest, I wasn’t sure if she would even believe me if I’d told her before now. The other reason, was because I knew Laura made you happy. I wanted that to last as long as possible, because despite the jokes and the teasing, you are still my friend, Danny,”

 

Both Danny and Laura look at Carmilla in surprise at the honesty of the girl, and Carmilla tries to shrug off the newfound attention.

“I mean, whatever. I just figured it was the best way to go about it,”

 

Laura reaches out and squeezes Carmilla’s hand, working hard to internalise the ‘awww’ that was begging to be released. Danny has so such qualms and instead chooses to mock Carmilla.

“Aww, look at that. Fangface does care,”

“Oh, bite me, Xena,” Carmilla shoots back but she can’t hide the blush that has formed on her cheeks.

 

“You’re taking all of this surprisingly well,” Laura says after a moment and Danny shrugs.

“Well, yeah. I mean, I’m not happy about the situation, but I’m happy for you guys. Besides, you guys are soulmates, me being a dick about it wouldn’t change that,”

 

“So you’re okay with it?” Carmilla asks, and Danny gives her a small smile.

“As okay as I can be about you stealing my girlfriend. It might take a little while, but I’ll be okay,”

“Good, I’m glad to hear it,” Carmilla replies, genuinely looking relieved.

 

“Someone should probably tell Perry that the party she’s been planning is about a week too late though,” Danny points out and Laura scrunches up her nose at the thought.

“Actually now that I think about it, we might not have to cancel it. My fake birthday actually belongs to a childhood friend of mine, we could just give him his rightful party instead?” Laura suggests and neither Danny nor Carmilla can find fault with that idea.

 

~

“This is the best birthday party a bro could have asked for. Thanks, Little Nerd,” Kirsch exclaims as he sets a piece of cake down on the table just long enough to pull Laura into a bearhug.

“I’m glad you like it, Kirsch. It’s the least I could do after the whole fake birthday thing,” Laura responds, her voice slightly muffled by Kirsch’s chest.

“For real though, even your friends are cool. I don’t know why you haven’t introduced us all until now,” Kirsch continues on and pulls back far enough to see Laura’s face, but not enough that he actually releases his grip.

 

“Okay, paws off now, Beefcake,” Carmilla taps Kirsch’s hand and he lets go.

“Not a problem, you’re Little Nerd’s soulmate. I’m not gonna stand in the way of that,” Kirsch shrugs and Carmilla nods in approval before Kirsh picks up his cake again and wanders off to go and mingle with some of the other partygoers.

 

“He’s definitely something,” Carmilla comments with a tilt of her head and Laura rolls her eyes.

“Kirsch is a sweetheart, you know you already like him at least a little bit,”

“You can’t prove that,” Carmilla states but she smiles softly regardless.

 

“At the very least, everyone else seems to like him,” Laura says and Carmilla smirks.

“Yeah, almost everyone. Danny doesn’t seem to be too fond of him,”

 

Laura turns to watch as Danny narrowly avoids getting elbowed in the face as Kirsch dances happily to the music, without noticing just how potentially dangerous his dance moves are.

“He’ll grow on her, he grows on everyone,” Laura smiles and Carmilla raises an eyebrow.

“Like a fungus?”

“Oh, stop it, you,” Laura slaps Carmilla on the arm lightly before grabbing her by the hand and tugging her towards their friends.

“Let’s dance,”

 

~

 

“I just don’t understand, she never liked me before,” Laura exclaims and pushes a furry tail out of her face, only to have it return to the exact same place.

“Honestly, I’m pretty sure it was just because you were always around the Beanstalk. You know how Mircalla is around her,” Carmilla responds and strokes the mass of black fur settled on Laura’s chest.

“Yeah, well. She sure as heck likes me now,” Laura pouts as Mircalla’s tail continues to flick her in the face.

“Don’t worry, she’ll grow on you,” Carmilla smirks and Laura rolls her eyes at her infuriating soulmate.

 

The last that either of the girls had seen of the party was Kirsch passed out on the couch, Danny heading to her room, and the rest of the gang saying their goodbyes. So it comes as quite a surprise when there is a sudden commotion from the living room.

“You’ve got to be kidding me?!”

“It’s fate, D-Bear,”

 

Carmilla and Laura share a worried look and Carmilla promptly moves Mircalla so that Laura can get up to investigate with her. When they exit their bedroom, Carmilla and Laura find Danny with an uncharacteristically wide smile on her face and Kirsch with his face in his hands.

 

“This can’t be happening, what did I do in life to end up here?” Kirsch questions and Danny just bounces around in excitement.

“Wait, are you two? Danny, are you soulmates?” Laura asks in surprise and Kirsch lets out a groan. Laura looks to Carmilla just in time to see the girl burst into laughter.

  
  
  



End file.
